Coaching to Gold: How to have amazing Teleports

by theScore StaffAug 18 2017

Thumbnail image courtesy of Riot Games

One of the most important things that any top or mid laner should know is how to teleport effectively. A good teleport can completely swing fights, protect objectives, and put pressure on the map that needs to be addressed. The skill is so impactful, in fact, that its cooldown is one of the highest ones in the game, having the same cooldown time as Flash.

There are a few different kind of teleports that can save your lane and save the game, and some ways in which teleporting can be an easier act for you.

Teleport mechanical tips

First things first, teleporting involves understanding the map. This means that your attention should be focused on the mini map and the movement of champions within it. Observing the minimap often comes with a cursory benefit as well, which is using it to have quick teleports. Instead of scrolling over to the destination of your teleport and clicking onto it, you can actually teleport to structures and wards from the minimap, so smartcasting your teleport can allow for some incredibly quick teleport responses.

Another Teleport tip is one which involves monitoring allies. The f1-f5 keys can help your screen jump quickly to an ally in need and teleport in their vicinity if there is anything to do so with. And if they don't need help, cancel your teleport with a quick press of the button you use for it to reduce the cooldown and keep your presence where you need it on the map.

Teleporting back to lane

Teleporting back to lane and knowing when to do so is a crucial part to using teleport effectively. Abusing your teleport advantage to carve out early leads can be very good, especially if your opponent took a different summoner spell. Teleporting early has little negative impact as well, as huge fights are unlikely to occur in the laning phase. Some key indicators on when to teleport back in lane include the following:

The position of your lane. If a mass of creeps are coming to your tower and you don't have the time to get there by walking and using mobility spells, teleport in order to keep the balance of experience and gold as much in your favor as possible

Does your opponent have teleport? This will determine whether you can exploit your advantage hard enough that they wouldn't be able to either come back to neutralize the lead you've created or go somewhere else to help another part of the map

Do you have an item spike that you can quickly receive in order to stabilize or dominate the lane? Getting a quick Sheen, or more sustain against a huge lane bully can be key factors to surviving your lane and outscaling or punishing your opponent's weak laning phase

Teleporting during a fight

Observing the way your allies are fighting and the way in which lanes are likely to be pressured can help you understand where you need to teleport at any given point in the early game. As shown below by Dignitas, teleports can be a quick response to cleaning up or turning the tides of smaller skirmishes. The act of teleporting in and of itself is a form of zone control, as champions position away from you and your ability to disrupt a fight.

Here at 10:24 game time, Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho of Dignitas matches the teleport of his opponent in order to jump into a fight. Because he knows that he has the more immediate impact with his big abilities, and his flash, Ssumday uses his ultimate to lock up targets and zones the Kalista completely out of the fight to secure a large advantage.

Teleporting to disengage/re-engage

The use of teleport can be reactive, but it can also be predictive and turn the tide of an ongoing fight as a result. Here, Ssumday is an ideal example once more, able to use teleport in a safer position to peel for his allies who are getting collapsed on by a charging Kled, who gets to start a 5v4 for his team without Ssumday's presence. This teleport, however, exploits Phoenix1's over-commitment, something very common to see in solo queue as well.

At 24:14 of the above game, Poppy channels her teleport just as Kled comes charging in, and Dignitas make sure to separate Kled's engage from the rest of his team. This allows Poppy's teleport position to be more impactful as the backline of Phoenix1 is forced further into a chokepoint. Poppy completes here teleport and as a result forces a full disengage and ultimately lost fight for Phoenix1.

Teleporting to dive

The most coordinated of players can outright win solo queue games through the usage of teleport, where a solo laner can combine their teleport with the usage of the jungler to dive the bot lane, get kills or summoner spells, and secure first tower and another objective.

It may sound difficult, but typing to your team your intentions plants the seed by which the idea and execution of that idea can grow and be successful.

In 5:45 of the above game, INTZ sets up a dive well in advance, and though gragas places a ward for a teleport flank, Renekton teleports to the minion to preserve the tower aggression while the remaining members surround the enemy botlane. This time and ability to position themselves thanks to the teleport allows for a clean dive with no members lost. They get kills, gold, experience and first tower, and as a result a huge swing in tempo where INTZ has the opportunity to control the rest of the game.

With such a powerful global ability at your fingertips, these types of teleports can be the factor which swings games in your favor. It's not good enough to just teleport to the lane with the farthest pushing creeps in your favour, as that kind of selfish behavior removes you from the rest of the map and creates a disadvantage for the rest of your team. As a result, you'll end up foolishly giving up your influence on the enemy team. These types of teleports are different, giving you your advantage but translating it to a team-wide benefit that will give you greater success in your games.

Gabriel Zoltan-Johan is a news editor at theScore esports and the head analyst for the University of Toronto League of Legends team. His (public) musings can be found on his Twitter.